14/11/2025 - Les Echos
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Jean-Michel Jarre: "Without us, AI would limit themselves to harvesting the words in the dictionary"
Jean-Michel Jarre, a pioneer of electronic music, sees artificial intelligence as a tool to broaden creative horizons. For "Les Echos de l'IA", Marina Alcaraz met the artist, a connoisseur of technological innovations and their impacts.
A muse 3.0. For Jean-Michel Jarre, AI "makes it possible to expand the boundaries of imagination". The songwriter, considered the father of electronic music, is very interested in AI both in his own creation but also as a defender of artists' rights.
For him, AI has many similarities with the human creative process. Where does an idea come from? "Your unconscious will harvest in your culture, your brain, your memory", a bit like AI will explore the world of data.
AI is a "tool that must be used according to your needs," says the one that has brought together millions of people in stadiums or iconic places. "We are all used to collaborating with ever more advanced software," AI is an extension, according to the artist.
In human DNA to be afraid of progress
Jean-Michel Jarre understands the concerns about AI, but puts them into perspective. When he introduced electronic music at the Paris Opera in the 1970s, musicians had unplugged the sound system, while they feared that electronic music would mark the end of the orchestra. "It is in the human DNA to have a fear of progress. It must therefore be understood, embraced to combat its negative effects."
He recalls that the fear of technology is not new, but that on the contrary each innovation has strengthened the existing one, while making it evolve: cinema has not made theater disappear, for example. "Technology helps to democratize creation. The more we democratize tools, the more we give a chance to musicians who would not have had the opportunity to express themselves, "explains Jean-Michel Jarre.
AI is not going to standardize culture. "What makes an artist unique is precisely to be unique," he says, adding: "You can give a guitar to anyone, not everyone will become Eric Clapton. For him, "there is no progress in feelings and emotions. Our relationship to human feelings remains the same, what changes are the tools to express them."
Share the digital cake
On the contrary, new musical genres will be created thanks to AI. "In ten or twenty years, AI will be considered today as the beginnings of black and white or silent cinema, with nostalgia."
The musician, who was president of Cisac (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) for seven years and represents more than 230 authors' societies in more than 120 countries, is a keen observer of the sector.
While recently, the International Confederation of Music Publishers, an international organization of music publishers, was alarmed by the "theft of intellectual property", tech giants having sucked up "all world music" without respecting copyright, it calls for sharing the "digital cake". "The foundation of generative AI is human. Without us, AI would limit themselves to harvesting the words from the dictionary."
Source: https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/int ... re-2198591
Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum
